NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A game featuring two squads looking for their first win, the Lipscomb women’s basketball team proved to be on the better half of two firsts in a 67-54 victory over Jacksonville State on Sunday afternoon in Allen Arena.

The nonconference victory is also the first career win for head coach Greg Brown, the fourth head coach in Lipscomb history.

Freshmen Alex Banks and Presley Stastny paced the Lady Bisons with career-highs with 18 and 17 points, respectively, as the two combined for eight of the Purple and Gold’s 13 3-point baskets.

“They got the ball in the hole today,” Brown said. “Their defense is improving and that is the biggest adjustment for freshmen, is learning to defend and score. There is a learning curve and they are getting more comfortable with what we are doing.”

The Lady Bisons never trailed in the contest and scored their first 18 points off of long range buckets. Senior Hannah Phillips started the barrage as Stastny sandwiched two treys around a Banks basket, with Phillips ending the initial attack with LU leading 18-11 with 14:53 remaining.

Stastny hit two more 3-point baskets to stretch the lead to 25-14 with 5:09 remaining in the first stanza, the largest lead of the first half for Lipscomb.

Banks hit a jump shot in the paint with 53 seconds remaining, the only two-point basket of the first half for Lipscomb. However, not to be outdone by the rest of the squad, hit another 3-point basket with time expiring to give LU the 33-25 lead at the half.

“One of the keys early, we had the intent to go inside,” Brown said. "They were great threes because it was a drive and a pass. They were in rhythm. When they are in rhythm and playing inside out, that is good to do.”

Jacksonville State (0-8, 0-0 OVC) started to make a comeback with 14:08 left in the game. A 10-0 run starting with a Dashauna Truss trey cut an 11-point Lady Bison lead to eight. Seven more consecutive Gamecock points cut the LU lead to just one with 10:40 on the clock.

Freshman Mallory Charpentier put a brief stop to the run after taking a driving layup to the bucket, giving LU the 47-44 lead.

After two Marikate Gardler free throws cutting the lead to just one at 47-46. A 12-2 Lady Bisons run increased the lead to 11 points at 59-48 with 6:43 remaining proved to be a deficit too much for JSU to overcome.

The run started with the theme of the afternoon, two 3-point baskets, as Charpentier and freshman Kelli Smith sank two baskets back-to-back.

The Gamecocks attempted to stretch the game out as much as possible by putting the Lady Bisons on the free throw line for the final two minutes but to no avail as LU increased the lead to 13 points for the final score of 67-54.

The Gamecocks were led by Truss with 12 points and Destany Mclin with 11 points.

Lipscomb won the rebounding battle 39-32, reaching a process goal for the Lady Bisons.

“One of our process goals was to out-rebound them by five,” Brown said. “We also have defensive field goal percentage and turnover goals, that when we hit all three it gives us a chance to win. Today we didn’t hit all three but did some other stuff that kept us in the game.”

The Lady Bisons have a week off for finals before traveling to No. 6 Georgia. The game is scheduled for 1 p.m. in Athens, Ga.